An unmanned Russian resupply craft
successfully docked to the International Space Station Sunday, bringing
almost a ton of food, fuel and supplies to the residents on board, and
for the next trio of space travelers, which will arrive on the ISS in
November.

The Progress 9 vehicle linked
up to the aft docking port of the Zvezda Service Module of the ISS at
12:01 p.m. Central time (1701 GMT) as the two spacecraft flew over Central
Asia after a four-day flight following its launch Wednesday from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The automated docking went off without
a hitch as Expedition 5 Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer
Peggy Whitson, and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev viewed the arrival
of the new capsule from inside Zvezda. A few minutes later, hooks and
latches closed between the two vehicles to form an airtight seal.

Korzun was prepared to take
over manual control of the Progress for the docking in the event its
automated rendezvous system did not work, but the linkup was executed
flawlessly.

The crew was scheduled to open
hatches between Zvezda and Progress this afternoon and will begin unloading
supplies from the craft on Monday.

Some of the supplies include
clothing and personal items for the Expedition Six crew – Commander
Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineers Nikolai Budarin and Don Pettit – who
will be launched aboard Endeavour on the STS-113 mission in November
to replace Korzun, Whitson and Treschev following the completion of
their 5 ˝ month mission.

The older Progress 8 vehicle,
which arrived at the ISS in June and which was undocked on Tuesday,
remains in orbit a safe distance away from the station, spending another
10 days aloft to enable Russian flight controllers to document smog
and smoke over northeastern Russia through its cameras.

The Progress docking clears
the way for the launch of Atlantis on the STS-112 mission Wednesday
to deliver the 14-ton Starboard 1 (S1) Truss to the station. A Wednesday
launch would result in Atlantis’ docking to the ISS Friday. Commander
Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Sandy
Magnus, Piers Sellers and Fyodor Yurchikhin are in the final stages
of their prelaunch preparations.

Information on the crew's activities
aboard the space station, future launch dates, as well as station sighting
opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available on the Internet
at:

The next ISS status report
will be issued as part of the STS-112 status reports once Atlantis launches,
or sooner, if developments warrant.

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